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Forgotten Opera Singers

Dec 22, 2015

Her real name was Alice Joséphine Pons. At the
age of 13 she came to the Conservatoire National de Paris, where first she
studied piano. she Then trained her voice and was a pupil of Dyna Beumer in Cannes
and Albert di Gorostiaga in Paris and already in 1917 gave a concert in Paris.
In 1924 she appeared at the Paris Théâtre des Variétés in an operetta. She made her stage debut in
1927 at the Municipal Theater of Mulhouse (Alsace) in ‘’Lakmé’’ of L. Delibes. She
was heard in Montpellier by Giovanni Zenatello and his wife, Maria Gay. It was
on their recommendation that she came to the Metropolitan opera where she
enjoyed a 30-year career.

Dec 19, 2015

She studied singing at Milan under Antonio
(or Nino) Cairone. First she appeared with great success in operettas. She made
her operatic debut in 1916 at the Teatro Ponchielli at Cremona. She made also some successful guest appearances in
Egypt and Switzerland. She retired from the stage in
1926.

She had a
Canadian mother and Yorkshire-born father who emigrated to the US from Canada.
In 1912 she auditioned in Berlin for Lilli Lehmann, who recommended that she
study with Clara Willenbucher. She also trained under Gertrude Miller, Frank King-Clark,
and Frau Niklaus Kempner, the teacher of Frieda Hempel. After auditioning for
Gatti-Casazza at the New York Met, she returned to Europe to study with Jean de
Reszke. Her operatic debut in December 1924 was in Nice, as Donna Anna followed
by Sieglinde. This success led to Frederic Austin offering a contract with
BNOC, and she made her debut as Tosca in 1925. The cast also included Tudor
Davies and Percy Heming, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. She remained with BNOC
until 1928 singing Tosca, Aïda, Elsa, Elisabeth, Eva, Sieglinde, Kundry and
finally Isolde under Adrian Boult. In 1928 she returned to America where she
sang Isolde in a concert performance with Rudolf Laubenthal as Tristan.In 1929, back in London, she opened the
Promenade Concert season at the Queen's Hall and then toured with the Covent
Garden Opera Company. She then returned to New York where she opened a vocal
studio and continued her concert career. In 1940 she moved from New York to
Long Beach, California, where, as well as teaching, she was music critic for
the local paper for eight years.From
1967 until her death, aged 93, she taught in Carmel, California (Obituary Opera
Dec 1984). Opera August 1984 quotes Neville Cardus as thinking her rather dull,
and not a good actress.

First he became an
actor and belonged to the Pilgrim Players under Sir Barry Jackson. Then he appeared
at Birmingham in operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He studied singing under
Baraldi and Charles Victor. Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall.
Like many British singers of his era he spent much time touring the United
Kingdom, appearing in popular oratorios, rather than performing in operas or
giving lieder recitals. Along with fellow-tenors Heddle Nash, Walter Widdop and
Parry Jones, Titterton was chosen as one of the sixteen soloists for the first
performance, and subsequent recording, of Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music
in 1938.

Kathleen Starling was
born on July 30th 1890 in Aylsham and was the youngest of four girls. Her
father was William Frederick Starling (he left his memories of Aylsham which
has been published by the society) and her mother was Katherine Annie Rees
Starling, nee Corney.

Kathleen became an
opera singer, her father paying for many singing lessons as she grew up.
According to Dad some of these singing lessons were undertaken in France.

She had a stage name,
it was Kathleen Destournel (French for Starling) and she kept that name for all
her public performances. Apparently she did start her career using her name,
Kathleen Starling but later changed it to Kathleen Destournel and it was then
that she had success.

Dame Nellie Melba (an
Australian opera singer) brought Kathleen to Australia to sing. Kathleen's
autograph book seems to confirm that she did come to Australia to perform.
There is an autograph in the book indicating she sang at 'Her Majesty's
Theatre' in Melbourne during March 1911. At this stage none of her family had
immigrated to Australia. Her sister, my grandmother, did not come to Australia
until 1926.

Kathleen certainly
sang in operas with Dame Nellie Melba. She appeared in a number of operas at
the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden including 'La Boheme' in 1919 where she
sang with Melba in front of the King and Queen. She had the part of the musette
in the second act.

Kathleen also played
in a number of benefits and Murray Keable (her nephew-my fahter) stated that
she gave a performance in their barn on their farm, 'The Grove' at Horning for
troops during WW1.

Kathleen continued to
sing and perform in a range of theatres and eventually married an American,
Robert Taylor. Robert or Bob as Kathleen called him was an American
entertainer. In 1939 Bob joined The Entertainment National Services
Association- ENSA and he and Kathleen entertained British Forces in England.

In 1942 they were
asked to organise a concert party to go overseas. They left London on the
'Monarch of Bermuda' during an air raid. It was a ship that normally took 360
passengers but on this trip there were 5,000 personnel. They gave three
concerts below deck.

They stopped in
Capetown, South Africa for three days and then continued on their trip. They
disembarked near Suez and took the train to Cairo. Altogether there were 42
artistes. Kathleen and the other artistes performed at camps near Cairo and
then went to Alexandria. From there they travelled throughout North Africa in
very trying circumstances at times.

According to
Kathleen, "My husband would always arrange to place the stage in a hollow
so that the audience would be raised on the sand hills." Often the lights
would fail and Kathleen would have to finish her songs in the dark. Every time
the entourage would arrive at a camp, there would be a tremendous cheer when
the women stepped out. It was the first time in years that some of the men had
seen women from home.

Kathleen continued to
travel around Egypt and experienced bombings, travelled on buses riddled with
bullets and with no windows to get to the camps in order to perform.

She stated that they
usually zigzagged to avoid holes but on one occasion they couldn't avoid the
holes and they felt everyone one of them as they drove to the next camp. She
thought it would be much better to be on a camel. At one stop Kathleen
discovered their billet had originally been Rommel's headquarters during the
German occupation. Kathleen's group also entertained the American troops as
they travelled around as part of an arrangement with the USO.

Eventually,
Kathleen's husband became ill and the doctors said he should return to Cairo.
However, the troop carriers were congested and it was difficult to arrange. Not
only did Kathleen get to take her husband back to Cairo but she bullied,
pleaded and eventually managed to persuade the officials to transport all her
costumes with them.

It was whilst Bob was
in hospital in Cairo that he read the book written by his sister in law
Rosemary Taylor. It was called 'Chicken every Sunday' and he decided that he
would retire to where his brother and sister in law lived in America.
Incidentally, this book was made into a movie.

In 1946 Kathleen and
Bob went to America via India and settled in Tueson, Arizona.

Kathleen remained
there until Bob's death and then she returned to England and to Aylsham where
she lived with her sisters until their deaths and then on her own until her own
death.